History Quotes / SidMeiersAlphaCentauri

-->--'''Spartan Battle Manual''' (Accompanies first completion of the Command Center base facility, and is the "welcome to the game" faction quote)

-->-- '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Spartan! Barracks! March!]]''' (Yes sir!) (Accompanies first completion of Network Node base facility)

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', ''"Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"'' (Accompanies first completion of Children's Creche base facility)

-->-- '''Lady Deirdre Skye''', '''Planet Dreams''' , (Accompanies the first completion of the Tree Farm base facility, and is the "welcome to the game" faction quote)

->''[[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica As the Americans learned so painfully]] in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on [[InformationWantsToBeFree information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality]], but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master.''
-->-- '''Comissioner Pravin Lal''', ''"U.N. Declaration of Rights"'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Planetary Datalinks")

->''The righteous need not cower before the [[OlderIsBetter drumbeat of human progress]]. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, [[BigBrotherIsWatching God still watches and judges us.]] [[NewMediaAreEvil Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear]]. [[SubvertedTrope But it was never the streets that were evil]].''
-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', ''"A Blessed Struggle"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Information Networks" tech)

->''Learn to overcome the crass demands of flesh and bone, for they warp the matrix through which we perceive the world. Extend your awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self of group and the self of humanity. [[TheNeedsOfTheMany The goals of the group and the greater race are transcendent]], and to embrace them is to achieve enlightenment.''
-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang''', ''"Essays on Mind and Matter"'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Ascetic Virtues")

-->-- '''Lady Deirdre Skye''', '''Planet Dreams''' , (The "welcome to the game" faction quote)

->''Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed has followed us to the stars and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse.''
-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', ''"The Centauri Monopoly"'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Merchant Exchange")

->''Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. [[Literature/TheArtOfWar Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself.]] The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with inferior force.''

->''Until now the battle had been proceeding smoothly. The enemy was outflanked and had been driven from the reactor housing, but [[NoSell against the reactor itself the matter canons were strangely ineffective.]] Rounds simply ''stopped'' in mid air.''

-->-- '''Saint Augustine''', ''"Confessions"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Cyberethics" tech)

->''You ivory tower intellectuals must not lose touch with the world of industrial growth and hard currency. It is all very well and good to pursue these high-minded scientific theories, but research grants are expensive. You must justify your existence by providing not only knowledge but concrete and profitable applications as well.''

->''Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.''

->''And when at last it is time for the transition from megacorporation to planetary government, from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls the energy supply controls Planet. In former times the energy monopoly was called "The Power Company"; we intend to give this name an entirely new meaning.''

->''Fossils fuels in the last century reached their extreme prices because of their inherent utility: they pack a great deal of potential energy into an extremely efficient package. If we can but sidestep the 100-million-year production process, we can corner this market once again.''

->''Some civilian workers got in among the research patients today and became so hysterical [[IDidWhatIHadToDo I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled]]. The consequence, of course, will be another public relations nightmare, but [[HeelRealization I was severely shaken by the extent of their revulsion towards a project so vital to our survival]].''

->''Wealth is the universe's way of rewarding those who are clever and efficient. Those who scorn it are turning their backs on the imperatives of life. They should be careful. We all know what happens to those who lose at the game of evolution.''

->''As the writhing, teeming mass of mindworms swarmed over the outer perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. "Stay calm! Use your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail. It is well known that the Mind Worm Boil uses [[MindRape psychic terror]] to paralyze its prey, and then carefully [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong implants ravenous larvae]] into the brains of its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only the most disciplined troops can resist this horrific attack.''

-> ''And here we tinker with metal, to try to give it a kind of life, and suffer those who would scoff at our efforts. But who's to say that, if intelligence had evolved in some other form in past millennia, the ancestors of these beings would not now scoff at the idea of intelligence residing within meat?''

->''Juvenile Sealurks, when isolated from the collective planetary consciousness, perform astounding feats as underwater sheepdogs. Vasts schools of calorie rich Sporefish may be herded by only a few well trained specimens. Just don't let them get too close to the fungus, or they'll turn on you like a Razorshark.''

->''The managers always talked about having the view from 30,000 feet.The only problem with having the view from 30,000 feet, is that at that height, everyone looks like ants.''

->''What's more important, the data or the jazz? Sure, sure, 'Information should be free' and all that--but anyone can set information free. The jazz is in how you do it, what you do it to, and in almost getting caught without getting caught. The data is 1's and 0's. Life is the jazz.''

->''Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. [[TheArtOfWar Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself.]] The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with inferior force.''

->[[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica ''As the Americans learned so painfully]] in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on [[InformationWantsToBeFree information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality]], but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master.''

->''Our ancestors harnessed the power of a sun, and so again shall we.''

->''As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master.''

->''Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me. We long for a caring Universe which will save us from our childish mistakes, and in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary we will pin all our hopes on the slimmest of doubts. God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist.''

->''Until now the battle had been proceeding smoothly. The enemy was outflanked and had been driven from the reactor housing, but against the reactor itself the matter canons were strangely ineffective. Rounds simply ''stopped'' in mid air.''

->''The phenomenon of man is unique. After a billion years, blind evolution has brought forth the first animal capable of rational inquiry. In us, the universe has finally developed the ability to look back upon itself and transcend the limits of randomness. From this point onward, the fate of the universe will not be a matter of chance, but of conscious choice.''

->''Man is a rope, tied between [[DyingLikeAnimals beast]] and [[{{Ubermensch}} overman]]--a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. I love those who do not know how to live, for they are those who cross over.''

->''Always there is the reach for more. Build up more wealth, [[MeasuringTheMarigolds tear more veils away from the ultimate mysteries,]] seize more power over your fellow man. More, more, always more to bolster human arrogance. Yet in the end, none of this frantic scurrying after worldly advantage will matter. When a man stands naked before his creator, [[NietzscheWannabe he will have nothing to show but his soul.]]''

->''The righteous need not cower before the [[OlderIsBetter drumbeat of human progress]]. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, [[BigBrotherIsWatching God still watches and judges us. [[NewMediaAreEvil Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear]]. [[SubvertedTrope But it was never the streets that were evil]].''

->''Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all?''

->''The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. [[NewMediaAreEvil Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear]]. [[SubvertedTrope But it was never the streets that were evil]].''

->''Beware, you who seek first and final principles, [[ScienceIsBad for you are trampling the garden of an angry God, and He awaits you just beyond the last theorem]].''

->''Men in their arrogance claim to understand the nature of creation, and devise elaborate theories to describe its behavior. But always they discover in the end that God was quite a bit more clever than they thought.''

->''[[MachineWorship Will we next create false gods to rule over us?]] How proud we have become, and how blind.''

->''Out of the very Apocalypse our people fled, to this new world among the stars. If any among you fear that God has forgotten us, do not be deceived. How could we have survived at all, unless the Lord had kept us in the palm of His hand? [[ThePromisedLand Surely we are here because we are destined to obey His will and fulfill His purpose.]]''

->''Always there is the reach for more. Build up more wealth, tear more veils away from the ultimate mysteries, seize more power over your fellow man. More, more, always more to bolster human arrogance. Yet in the end, none of this frantic scurrying after worldly advantage will matter. When a man stands naked before his creator, he will have nothing to show but his soul.''

->''[[TerminallyDependentSociety Already we have turned all of our critical industries, all of our material resources, over to these... things...]] these [[{{Nanotechnology}} lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots]]. [[AIIsACrapshoot And now we propose to teach them intelligence?]] What, pray tell, will we do when these little homunculi awaken one day and announce that they have no further need for us?''

->''Out of the very Apocalypse our people fled, to this new world among the stars. If any among you fear that God has forgotten us, do not be deceived. How could we have survived at all, unless the Lord had kept us in the palm of His hand? Surely we are here because we are destined to obey His will and fulfill His purpose.''

->''If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself.''

->''What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. [[{{Determinator}} Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.]]''

->''We shall take only [[LamarckWasRight the greatest minds, the finest soldiers, the most faithful servants]]. [[SendInTheClones We shall multiply them a thousandfold]] and release them to usher in a new era of glory.''

->''There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn, nonetheless, for the latter.''

->''The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say "It cannot be done."''

->''The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!''

->''Already we have turned all of our critical industries, all of our material resources, over to these...things...these [[{{Nanotechnology}} lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots]]. [[AIIsACrapshoot And now we propose to teach them intelligence?]] What, pray tell, will we do when these little homunculi awaken one day and announce that they have no further need for us?''

->''The tragedy of Earth is not that so many died. Death is an inevitable part of life. The tragedy is that so many died as victims. When the crisis came, they were helpless, unable to use their deaths to buy anything of value. Millions of otherwise intelligent people had been tricked into ignoring a fundamental truth: that no man has any rights if he is unable to personally defend them.''

-->-- '''Comissioner Pravin Lal''', ''"Man and Machine"'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Neural Grafting" tech)

->''We hold life to be sacred, but we also know the foundation of life consists in a stream of codes not so different from the successive frames of a watchvid. Why then cannot we cut one code short here, and start another there? Is life so fragile that it can withstand no tampering? Does the sacred brook no improvement?''

->''Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. [[RefiningResources We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on.]] Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.''

->''I tell you that every man is an accident, a twig on the tree of life, an animal which can barely be called sentient or self-aware. If our lives have any meaning, it is as part of the greater whole, which existed long beofre us and will exist long after we are gone. Those of us who are aware of this fact must step forward, to guide those who remain snugly wrapped in their illusions.''

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "But for the Grace of God" (Accompanies discovery of the "Controlled Singularity" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "A Blessed Struggle" (Accompanies discovery of the "Information Networks" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "The Lord Works" (Accompanies discovery of the "High Energy Chemistry" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "But for the Grace of God" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Planetary Transit System")

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "But for the Grace of God" (Accompanies discovery of the "Unified Field Theory" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "The Collected Sermons" (Accompanies discovery of the "Planetary Economics" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "We must Dissent" (Accompanies discovery of the "Advanced Spaceflight" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson'''n, "We must Dissent" (Accompanies discovery of the "Quantum Machinery" tech)

--->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "We must Dissent" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "Self-Aware Colony")

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "We must Dissent" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "Bulk Matter Transmitter")

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "We must Dissent" (Accompanies discovery of the "Industrial Nanorobotics" tech)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "But for the Grace of God" (from ''GURPS Alpha Centauri'' supplement)

-->-- '''Sister Miriam Godwinson''', "We must Dissent" (from ''GURPS Alpha Centauri'' supplement)

-->Spartan Battle Manual (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Command Nexus")

-->Spartan Battle Manual (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Neural Amplifier")

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''' "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide" (Accompanies discovery of the "Advanced Military Algorithms" tech)

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide" (Accompanies first completion of Children's Creche base facility)

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide" (Accompanies discovery of the "Orbital Spaceflight" tech)

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Maritime Control Center")

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Nano Factory")

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "Leadership and the Sea" (Accompanies discovery of the "Doctrine: Initiative" tech)

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "The Council of War" (Accompanies discovery of the "Nanometallurgy" tech)

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "The Council of War" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "[[DesignerBabies The Cloning Vats]]")

-->-- '''Col. Corazon Santiago''', "A Tactical History of Sparta" (Would have accompanied discovery of the deleted "Inertial Damping" tech)

-->-- '''Assassins' Redoubt''', ''[[ApocalypticLog final transmission]]'' (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "[[MindRape The Dream Twister]]")

-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', "The Centauri Monopoly" (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Merchant Exchange")

-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', "The Centauri Monopoly" (Would have accompanied discovery of the deleted "Global Energy Theory" tech)

-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', "The Centauri Monopoly" (Accompanies completion the Secret Project "The Living Refinery")

-->-- '''CEO Nwabudike Morgan''', ''Morgan Industries Annual Report'' (Accompanies discovery of the "Nanominiaturization" tech)

-->-- '''Lady Deirdre Skye''', Arguments in Council (Accompanies completion of the Secret Project "The Xenoempathy Dome")

->''In the past 20 years, we have used our telescopes to gather a few terabytes of information about the target world. On this basis, we glibly call Chiron "earthlike." I want you to consider for a moment what that means. Chiron has gravity not too much higher than we find comfortable, an atmosphere containing water and free oxygen, a surface climate that we can tolerate. That's all. Billions of years of separate evolution have inevitably made Chiron a greatr challenge than we can imagine. Even the familiar will be alien.''

->''A brave little theory, and actually quite coherent for a system of five or seven dimensions -- [[TakeThat if only we lived in one]].''